Articles
Barton W. Stone
Barton W. Stone
Kolton Balance
Barton Warren Stone was one of the prominent leaders of the Restoration Movement. The movement has been called the “Stone-Campbell Movement” due to the work of these men to bring about the restoration principles.
Barton Stone has been recognized for his response to the Transylvania Presbytery when being ordained as a minister. They asked him, “Do you receive and adopt the Confession of Faith as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Bible?” Stone’s reply was, “I do, as far as I see it consistent with the Word of God.”
This was a bold statement by Stone in a day when man-made creeds and confessions had become law. But Barton Stone saw a greater need than holding to some man-made creed. He saw the need to return to the Word of God as the only source to be followed. He saw the need to be consistent with the word of God.
His statement carries a mentality that all Christians today need to adopt. This is a mentality that says, “I will forsake anything that I find inconsistent with the Bible.” This is the mentality that gets back to the Bible alone as the authority in religion. This is the mentality that puts nothing above what the Bible teaches. We ought to be people who cringe at the thought of following something that cannot be found in Scripture.
In theory, we usually love this concept of following the Bible alone. However, in practice it can be tricky. I want to challenge you to look for things in Christianity today that you find inconsistent with Scripture. We need to revive the mentality that says, “we will practice only the things we see in Scripture.” We need more Christians like Barton Stone to step up and say, “I want to be consistent with God’s Word!”
